You know, I was all set to launch into an article on how to change out a sink faucet in 232 easy steps. This, of course, would be part of my series on How To Be Your Own Plumber.

But then I thought, why bother? The number of people who would actually be interested in taking on a job like this is so small already. Do an intersection with the handful that read this blog, and you get a fat empty set.

Anyhow, as long as you have a relatively modern sink faucet, it’s a pretty easy operation. You can pretty much follow the instructions given and that’s it. I was able to change out our approximately 10 year old faucet in about two hours. One hour of that time was spent trying to figure out why I couldn’t shut off the hot water from the shutoff under the sink. I still have no idea - ended up shutting it off at the water heater.

This is also a single handle faucet - I’m not familiar with the ones that use two handles for hot and cold. Actually, we hate those. So that was a fairly easy choice to make. After shutting off the water, you basically only have to disconnect the hot and cold supply lines underneath that feed the faucet. This can usually be accomplished with two crescent wrenches (sometimes I think you can do it with only one). YMMV.

Then, you remove the two nuts that bolt the faucet to the underside of the sink. Disconnect the sink plug arm - I forget the name of this thingy. It’s basically when you want to plug the sink, you pull up a lever? Well, you want to disconnect that lever from the control on the bottom.

Remove the old faucet, put in the new one in (make sure to put the plastic or rubber gasket on the bottom first) and just do everything you did in reverse order. Bolt it down, connect the supply lines, turn on the water, check for leaks, reconnect the sink plug arm.

Done, and I guess done. Make sure that nothing leaks, because nothing ruins your day more than having to paddle around the house in an upside-down umbrella …

It has come to my attention that I should really just write whatever the hell I feel like, instead of desperately trying to gain traffic, twitter followers and major awards as fast as is humanly possible which is what the majority of blogs out there try to do.

There I said it.

OK, so with California being near the top as far as unemployment numbers and foreclosure rates go, I’ve been wondering just how many people have been doing the reverse-dustbowl migration and heading out to greener, cheaper pastures. This opinion letter in the LA Times was kinda funny and poignant at the same time. Actually, if it had more profanity in it, it could almost be a semi-serious Impulsive Buy review letter.

I’ve often thought about moving to another state, or even up into that great wild north where hockey fans skate free and unfettered by restrictive sports broadcasts. But truth be told, I think this is just because I’ve lived here for 35 or so years and sometimes you do get tired of sunny days over and over again while the rest of the nation “enjoys” snow. Hmm…if we did move, I wonder if I’d find myself singing this particular song once in awhile:

“I’m going back to Cali, cali, cali. I don’t think so.”

I’ve been a poo cheerleader for a long time now.

That’s right. Poo-conversation-adverse folks, you should tune out right now. We’re talking cow poo power - taking the manure from cows on a farm and using a “digester” to produce methane gas from it, which is then used to produce electricity. Another byproduct is the heat generated which is used to keep nearby homes warm. The leftover waste from the manure processing is used for fertilizer.

Seems like a pretty good deal, poo not withstanding. The only thing is the expense of the machines and technology used to convert the poo slurry (yum) into methane. I guess that’s always the rub with new energy tech, from solar power to hydrogen powered cars. I sure would like to get some solar powered panels one day on my roof since there’s so much sun here in Southern Calif. But right now price seems to be a barrier.

Yes, yes, I’ll stop talking about poo now. You should just be glad that I declined to include a picture for this here post. And so on.

Source: CNNnnnnnnn

I’ve been sort of neglecting Tuesday Thrift posts. Which is a shame, mostly because they’re so easy to put up. As I’ve mentioned before, we do a lot of thrifting, so it’s natural to write about it.

These Pyrex refrigerator dishes aren’t something we found recently, but I figured they were worth mentioning. We actually use them around the house, as opposed to only for display which I know a lot of people do. Made in the 1950s to the 1980s, these rectangular dishes were meant to store leftovers in the refrigerator. They usuallly came in sets of four - two this smaller size, a medium size dish and a large dish. All of them had the clear glass lids as well.

While we’ve occasionally used them for their intended purpose of storing leftovers in the fridge, we find they come in much more handy as spice cellars. In particular, it’s a great way to keep kosher salt around the cooking area.

With the economy down, there are so many people buying up vintage dishes like this. So you might find it a bit harder to come across them at the thrift store. These were found two or three years ago. Often, you’ll find them without their glass lids. A warning - the lids are rather susceptible to chipping. Sometimes, garage sales will have them. They made them up until the 80s, so there’s a good chance of finding it even in a newer household. I’ve picked them up for as cheap as 25 cents in the past, but those finds are fast becoming a thing of the past.

It’s been sort of silent of the Free Food front. I’m not sure if that has to do with me becoming disenchanted with all the chicken wars and such, or if it’s just that I haven’t paid attention to that kind of stuff lately.

However, Jack in the Box is doing a Free Taco day again tomorrow Tuesday, August 4, 2009. I found this out courtesy of the GrubGrade site, which I’ve been following regularly because they’re so on the ball when it comes to food freebees like this.

They’re giving away two free tacos from 12AM midnight Tues until 11:59PM (participating restaurants only, blah blah). I know - these are the type of tacos that give even fast food tacos a bad name. I actually like them. I know - gross. I’ve stopped buying them every other week, however, due to the increasing size of my beer gut. I think the last time I had them was several months ago. But I might stop in just for the freebee tomorrow.